The Australian Navy take a fortunate (or unfortunate) Yann Eliès off Generali during the 2008/09 Vendée Globe after suffering a badly broken femur when he was smashed into the rig by a wave while on the foredeck in the Southern Ocean. Eliès struggled to get back inside his Imoca 60 and was then left helpless until Marc Guillemot reached him on Safran and stood by until his friend was rescued. After finishing second in the last Route du Rhum Eliès is desperately searching for a sponsor for the next Vendée Globe – winning the Transat Jacques Vabre twice and the Figaro race an incredible three times does not seem to give you too many special privileges
and his project manager Anne Combier! The Maître Coq support kicks in later this year with about 1.7 million euros committed between them and their business partners towards the operating costs of the Vendée Globe project. With the best previous boats all now active and in good hands,
2019 will still be the year of new boats. For the moment only one new-generation Imoca has been launched, Jérémie Beyou’s Charal, which immediately became the object of everyone’s attention, clearly looking like a dramatic step forward from the foilers of 2015/16. But later this year seven other new boats will be launched, for
Alex Thomson, Charlie Dalin, Sébastien Simon, Armel Tripon, Kojiro Shiraishi and Thomas Ruyant. These Imocas are designed by four different architects: Juan Kouyoumdjian, Guillaume Verdier, Sam Manuard and the VPLP team. The seventh and last on the list is the Juan K-designed Corum l’Epargne, to be skippered by the two- times Figaro winner (2006 and 2008) Nicolas Troussel… with Michel Desjoyeaux as technical director. l Just as we go to turn off the computer it has been announced that Banque Populaire will not only build a replacement Ultime for Armel Le C’léac’h but they have also bought the Imoca SMA (ex-Macif) used by Route du Rhum winner Paul Meilhat, to be skippered in the bank’s famous blue colours by brilliant young Mini Transat racer Clarisse Crémer. Please watch this space!
Hard finish On 5 November 2018 Jean-Luc Van Den Heede called Golden Globe Race founder Don McIntyre to advise that his Rustler 36 Matmut had been badly knocked down to about 150° causing serious damage to the rig including to the critical through-bolt area where the lower shrouds attach to the mast. The mast was not in danger of falling, but it was not securely
tensioned. The bolt was torn about 5cm down ripping through the mast wall and slackening off the rigging. The 73-year-old Frenchman from Les Sables d’Olonne had turned downwind under bare
poles until such time as conditions improved for a possible repair. With about 1,900nm left to Cape Horn, the solo navigator was
intending to fix his rig enough to allow him to hoist some sail again and head for Valparaiso, Chile, to effect a permanent repair. Jean-Luc was not injured during the knock-down, had requested no assistance at the time and was confident he could make Valparaiso safely. The diversion means that he will move ‘down’ to the Chichester Class once he reaches port to make repairs and could no longer challenge for the non-stop GGR victory. The French navigator, who lost his closest rival Philippe Pêché
in the South Atlantic approaching the Cape of Good Hope, had been ‘flying’ in the Southern Ocean and at the time of his incident was leading the race by 1,500nm in front of the Dutchman Mark Slats. Then on 8 November, after having cautiously checked and made some repairs to the shroud attachments, Jean-Luc changed his mind and told Don McIntyre he intended to continue in the race and not head to Chile. ‘The worst that can happen is that I lose my rig, and I have my jury rig ready,’ he said. Meanwhile, the solo navigator had called his wife by Satphone
after the mast problem, which is forbidden by the rule and also moves you to the Chichester Class. Jean-Luc requested that he be considered for a time penalty instead of being relegated to the Chichester Class for his Satphone use, since no support was pro- vided in the phone call and his existing HAM radio communications were good and providing all advice and assistance. In the spirit of the Golden Globe Race the organisers applied an 18-hour time penalty for VDH’s yacht Matmut, to be served in the GGR Penalty Box set in the north Atlantic. Fifteen days later, at exactly 19:16 UTC on Friday 23 November,
Jean-Luc rounded Cape Horn and despite ‘safe’ navigation to protect his damaged rig he was still 1,350nm in front of his Dutch rival (approx- imately a 10-day advance for those old boats which are very slow). In a special radio hook-up with members of the International Asso- ciation of Cape Horners, attending their annual meeting in
SEAHORSE 21
AUSTRALIAN NAVY/DPPI
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